“Hence there has now been added, that the poets
also adorn the falsehoods of error by elegance of words, and by
sweetness of speech persuade that mortals have been made immortal; yea
more, they say that men are changed into stars, and trees, and animals,
and flowers, and birds, and fountains, and rivers. And but that
it might seem to be a waste of words, I could even enumerate almost all
the stars, and trees, and fountains, and rivers, which they assert to
have been made of men; yet, by way of example, I shall mention at least
one of each class. They say that Andromeda, the daughter of
Cepheus, was turned into a star; Daphne, the daughter of the river
Lado, into a tree; Hyacinthus, beloved of Apollo, into a flower;
Callisto into the constellation which they call Arctos; Progne and
Philomela, with Tereus, into birds; that Thysbe in Cilicia was
dissolved into a fountain; and Pyramus, at the same place, into a
river. And they assert that almost all the stars, trees,
fountains, and rivers, flowers, animals, and birds, were at one time
human beings.”